A man who was caught on video using a crutch to beat a 12-year-old boy on a Brooklyn street earlier this month has 23 prior arrests on his record — including one for attempted murder, sources told the New York Daily News.

According to WPIX-TV, the boy was headed to school on Caton Avenue around 7:40 a.m. Nov. 17 when a man came up from behind and struck him several times with the crutch while the boy was in a crosswalk.

Jamal McIlwain, 28, was arrested Wednesday after a 911 call about a man acting erratically outside an unspecified high school, the Daily News said.

When police arrived at the scene, the man spit on an officer, police added to the paper, and officers recognized him as the man wanted for the crutch assault.